FACT: - The
image on your cassette tapes, films and photos are deteriorating. If they
are 20 years older or more, you may start noticing it soon, if you haven't
already..

FACT: - You will want to preserve
some of those recorded memories for future generations.

FACT: - You probably WON'T want to
preserve ALL of that recorded footage.

FACT: You may not have the equipment
setup to easily watch the old tapes, let alone the tedious rewinding and
fast-forwarding to get to parts you want to see.

Some editing must be done.

FACT: - Editing
can be both time consuming, and expensive.
Just the act of consolidating and organizing all the reels and cassettes can
be complicated.
This may keep you from getting around to it, risking greater deterioration as
time goes by...

I have been professionally editing for over 18 years now. With every passing
year, the quality of the equipment increases, my skill level increases, the
efficiency of my process increases, and your footage becomes more and more precious.

Many of those companies offer a cheaper deal if you have a larger order. For
example, if you have 10 tapes or less, it would cost $20 a tape, but if you
have 11 tapes or more, then you would get a cheaper quote per tape. If you have
a smaller amount of footage, they would most likely cost the same as me. Actually,
once you add in the shipping, they may cost more. Also, those usually come with
conditions such as "no editing allowed." In addition, you won't have
the option of talking to the actual technician doing the transfer. Many times,
it is just a computer doing the work overseas and the operator may not even
speak English. I am the only one doing the work so you have full access to doing
anything to any frame of your footage. In addition to that, they usually won't
give you the option of making a digital MPEG file, which I highly recommend
for reasons explained below.

All jobs are different. Over the years, I have refined my pricing so that it
is based on two simple factors:
1- How much footage you have.
2 - How much editing do you want to done to it.

All footage, regardless of the format it is on, can be broken down into
3 categories:

Footage that doesn't need any editing at all, just a straight conversion
or transfer.I charge $25 for every DVD mastered, up to 2 hours in length.

Footage that only needs specific stuff removed. (For example, you filmed
the entire concert,
but after filming, you realize you only want to save the 5 minutes that your
child performed in.)
Since these will end up in putting several tapes onto one DVD, it is the
price above, plus $5 additional
for each cassette of raw footage, regardless of the amount of raw footage.

Footage that needs more editing done to it.

For categories 1 and 2, I can offer a simple flat fee based on the length
of the final footage. For footage that fits category #3, I review the footage
and we discuss what you want done to it. Then, based on an estimate of
$30 per hour of my time, and give you a min/max quote. For example I might
estimate: "all category #3 footage editing will cost you at least $50,
but I guarantee it won't cost you any more than $100."

Category 3 footage can be a complete mix of footage that you have specific
instructions for, and footage that you just say "clean it up, I trust your
judgment" or anything in between. You can give me specific instructions
such as "make sure you take this shot, and that shot out, but what ever
you do, make sure you leave this shot and that shot in, and then just cut the
whole reception down to something like 5 minutes."

In addition to any of your instructions, and without any additional cost to
you, using my own discretion I will work on:
- removing all the "bad videography" shots, (upside-down cameras,
camera accidentally left on, out of focus shot, too shaky because you were busy
trying to adjust the settings on the camera, 2 minutes of nothing going on because
you were waiting for the guest of honor to finally walk through the door before
everyone yelled "surprise!")
- Adjust the color balance if any shot is obviously "unnatural" looking
(too red, too yellow, too blue."
- Adjust the exposure so that shots that were too dark when filmed, are not
as dark, and shots that look too bright, are also not too bright.
- Adjust the audio levels so that shots where the audio is faint, is now a little
better, and shots that are too loud, are now a little quieter.

Amount of footage: I will give you a minimum/maximum estimate after I review
your footage and we will agree with it in writing before I proceed (email and
text are fine for communicating in writing to help simplify the process).

So let say you have 20 hours of raw unedited footage. If you say to me "I
want that edited down to one DVD, 2 hours in length", I will review the
footage and give you a min/max quote. If you say, "I want all 20 hours
of footage kept and transferred, except for any shaky footage," I will
review the footage and give you a min/max quote. Odds are they will both be
very similar in price, because it will take the same amount of labor time for
me to reproduce. But if you say "I have 20 hours and it all needs to be
edited explicitly," then this quote will be much larger than the first
two quotes because that will take much more time to edit.

Someone with real simple footage to edit might hear:
"Due to the nature of your footage, I estimate it will take at least
2 hours to edit all that footage, but I doubt it would take more than 4..
Therefore, I guarantee you it will cost at least $60, but I will not charge
more than $120 for the entire job.

Someone with real complicated footage to edit might hear:
"Due to the fancy editing job you want, I have to charge $50 for every
hour of footage I have to edit, and It appears you have somewhere between
4 hours and 6 hours of footage. Therefore, I guarantee you it will cost at
least $200, but I will not charge more than $300 for the entire job.

If you already have a ball-park figure in your head, let me know before I start
reviewing your footage. For example, if you already know that you want the job
done, and you have a minimum/maximum number in your head, it helps for you to
tell me that before I look at your footage. If I am comfortable committing to
those amounts, I can start editing right away and it makes the process much
more efficient for all of us. I suggest you start editing some of the oldest,
or most unkempt footage first, since that is the stuff that needs attention
most urgently. For example, if you have footage of your children growing up,
the tapes with them as a baby and an infant are up to 10 years older than the
tapes you have of them at age 10 and 11. So the teenage years footage won't
deteroriate to the point of the infant/toddler footage for another 10-15 years.
I wouldn't wait another 10-15 years before you transfer that footage, but at
least after doing a few tapes, you'll know how much it will cost, and you'll
be able to save up for another batch of editing for next year.

Do your very best to put them in chronological order before I recieve them.
Most people organize their tapes by the type of media it is. All thier VHS
are in one box, all their film footage is in another box, etc. Get post-its,
and put them in chronological order, regardless of whether all the VHS tapes
are together and all the Hi-8 tapes are together. This will help me put all
the footage in linear order so I start with the earliest.

Get post-its and assign each cassette/reel/etc. with a number starting at
#1, and ALSO put the year/month the recording took place on that post-it.
If your tape says "Rachel's 3rd birthday" and nothing else, on it,
you know what year/month that is, but I have no idea. If you do this, you
can then put them in any order for transport. The more info I have to work
with, the better and easier it is to judge the "mystery footage".

I have gotten special requests from clients for a unique opening, or a certain
look for the video. Some of these include freezing on a certain frame, slowly
changing a picture from color to black &, white (or vice versa), slowing
down a video for dramatic effect; and even having the opening credits roll up
the screen the same way they do in Star Wars. Don't ask me what I can do, because
I still haven't discovered anything that I can't do yet. In all the time
I've been doing these, I've yet to say no to a special request. And I always
enjoy a new challenge! Usually the special effects that people request are not
that challenging for me and I do not have to charge any more than the standard
"Category 3" edit cost. But I will quote you a flat fee for anything
elaborate before you commit.

Yes, so long as it was a competent transfer job. Just make sure you contact
me first to work out the technicalities of the scanning and saving process (image
quality, system compatability, resolution size, file type, etc.)

If I don't have any other jobs in my queue, and you only have a few tapes,
I can start tomorrow and most likely have it done overnight. Larger projects
will be scheduled next in-line with my current workload, so, along with the
quote, you will have an expected time of completion. If you pay upfront, your
job becomes first priority and I will complete the project ASAP.